Search This Blog

Subscribe to this blog

Follow by Email

Iraqi Officials Say IS Leader Wounded In Airstrike

This file image made from video posted on a militant website Saturday, July 5, 2014, which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, purports to show the leader of the Islamic State group,

BAGHDAD, IRAQ (ASSOCIATED PRESS) — Iraqi officials said Sunday that the head of the Islamic State group, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, was wounded in an airstrike in western Anbar province. Pentagon officials said they had no immediate information on such an attack or on the militant leader being injured.

Iraq's Defense and Interior ministries both issued statements saying al-Baghdadi had been wounded, without elaborating, and the news was broadcast on state-run television Sunday night. The reports came at a time when President Barack Obama said the U.S.-led coalition was in a position to start going on the offensive against the Islamic State militants.

Al-Baghdadi, believed to be in his early 40s, has a $10 million U.S. bounty on his head. Since taking the reins of the group in 2010, he has transformed it from a local branch of al-Qaida into an independent transnational military force.

He has positioned himself as perhaps the pre-eminent figure in the global jihadi community. His forces have seized large parts of Syria and Iraq, killed thousands of people, beheaded Westerners and drawn the U.S. troops and warplanes back into the region, where Washington is leading a campaign of airstrikes by a multinational coalition.

An Interior Ministry intelligence official told The Associated Press that al-Baghdadi was wounded by an Iraqi airstrike that came during a meeting Saturday with militants in the town of Qaim. The official, cited informants within the militant group. A senior Iraqi military official also said he learned in operational meetings that al-Baghdadi had been wounded.

The operation was carried out by Iraqi security forces, both officials said, although they did not know how seriously al-Baghdadi was hurt. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss confidential material.

A statement posted Sunday on the official Facebook page of Defense Minister Khalid Obeidi also said al-Baghdadi was wounded, but added that he was targeted in the northern city of Mosul, currently the group's biggest stronghold in Iraq. A senior U.S. defense official said Saturday that the coalition conducted a series of airstrikes targeting a gathering of Islamic State leaders near Mosul, but he could not confirm whether al-Baghdadi was part of the gathering.

Reports circulated Saturday that al-Baghdadi may have been wounded in an airstrike, but there was no confirmation at that time from either U.S. or Iraqi officials. The U.S. Central Command said Friday it conducted two airstrikes near Qaim that destroyed a militant armored vehicle and two checkpoints of the militant group, which is also known by the acronyms ISIL and ISIS. On Nov. 1, the U.S. military conducted four strikes in the town.

When asked about the Iraqi reports, Air Force Col. Patrick Ryder, spokesman for U.S. Central Command in Tampa, Florida, said Sunday: "We have no information to corroborate reports that ISIL leader al-Baghdadi has been injured."

Rami Abdurrahman, director of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said some Islamic State militants wounded in the airstrike near Qaim were taken across the frontier to the Syrian border town of Boukamal.

"They brought ISIS injured to Aisha Hospital in Boukamal. We don't know if somebody died there or not. We know for sure that they brought some of the ISIS people injured in Roummaneh to the hospital," Abdurrahman said.

There was no indication that al-Baghdadi was among those brought to Boukamal. The reclusive al-Baghdadi is known to have made only one public appearance, purportedly delivering a sermon at a mosque in Mosul, as seen in a video posted online in June. That came five days after his group declared the establishment of an Islamic state, or caliphate, in the territories it holds in Iraq and Syria. The group proclaimed al-Baghdadi its leader and demanded that all Muslims pledge allegiance to him.

Since then, part of the Islamic State group's core strategy has been to establish administration over lands that it controls to project an image of itself as more than just a fighting force. In parts of Syria under its control, the group administers courts, repairs roads and even polices traffic. It recently imposed a curriculum in schools in Mosul and in its Syrian stronghold, Raqqa, scrapping subjects such as philosophy and chemistry, and fine-tuning the sciences to fit with its ideology.

As his forces swept across northern and western Iraq in June and July, they seized towns, causing several of Iraq's army and police divisions to fall into disarray in the worst crisis in the country since U.S. troops withdrew in 2011.

On Friday, Obama authorized the deployment of up to 1,500 more American troops to bolster Iraqi forces, which could boost the total number of U.S. forces to 3,100 and spread advisory teams and trainers across the country, including into Anbar province where the fighting has been fierce.

The militant Islamist group has overrun a large part of the province in its push to expand its territory, which stands at about a third of both Iraq and Syria. Last week, hundreds of men, women and children with the Sunni Al Bu Nimr tribe were killed by the militant group, which apparently feared the tribe would challenge its authority in the province.

Officials with the Iraqi government, as well as officials with the coalition targeting the extremists, repeatedly have said that Iraqi tribes are key elements in the fight against the Islamic State group since they are able to penetrate areas inaccessible to airstrikes and ground forces.

In an interview with CBS' "Face the Nation" that took place Friday and was broadcast Sunday, Obama said its airstrikes, which the U.S. first launched on Aug. 8, have been effective in scaling back the Islamic State group's advance.

"Rather than just try to halt ISIL's momentum, we're now in a position to start going on some offense," Obama said. "The airstrikes have been very effective in degrading ISIL's capabilities and slowing the advance that they were making," he added.

Abdul-Zahra reported from Boston. Associated Press writers Robert Burns in Washington and Ryan Lucas in Beirut contributed to this report.

Comments

BIAFRA

Translate

Popular Posts

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, right, accompanied by Gov. Gavin Newsom, said California will probably sue President Donald Trump over his emergency declaration to fund a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border Friday, Feb. 15, 2019, in Sacramento, Calif. Becerra says there is no emergency at the border and Trump doesn't have the authority to make the declaration. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)

BY KATHLEEN RONAYNE

SACRAMENTO, CALIF. (AP) — California is likely to sue President Donald Trump over his emergency declaration to fund a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border, the state attorney general said Friday.

Attorney General Xavier Becerra and Gov. Gavin Newsom, both Democrats, told reporters that there is no emergency at the border and that Trump doesn’t have the authority to make the declaration.

“No one in America is above the law, not even the president of the United States,” Becerra said. “The president does not have power to act frivolously.”

BY SEYE OLUMIDEABUJA (THE GUARDIAN)--Former Chief of Defence Staff, Lt. General Alani Akinrinade (rtd) in an interview with The Guardian on July 24, 2016, accused the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and President Muhammadu Buhari of deceiving Nigerians to win the 2015 election.

The retired service chief said the incumbent signed to a manifesto of restructuring before he secured the support of the Southwest leaders but rescinds immediately he got into office.

Four years down the line, restructuring is still a matter agitating the region few days ahead of the 2019 general election. Some leaders of the region, especially those holding political offices and are also seeking reelection on the platform of the ruling APC are skating around the subject basically because President Buhari and the national leader of the party, Bola Tinubu have refused to mention the matter the subject.

Senegalese President Macky Sall delivers a speech during his coalition's election campaign meeting at Lamine Gueye stadium in Kaolack, Senegal on 12 February 2019. Picture: AFP
DAKAR (AFP)--- Senegal goes to the polls Sunday in a presidential contest that incumbent Macky Sall, facing unusually few challengers in a country fond of vigorous political debate, is confident of winning in the first round.

His two biggest rivals -- popular Dakar ex-mayor Khalifa Sall and Karim Wade, the son of the previous president -- were disqualified after being convicted of corruption in trials questioned by rights groups.

"Victory in the first round is indisputable," a Macky Sall told a recent Dakar campaign rally.

Sall faces competition from four opposition rivals -- lesser-known perhaps, but campaigning hard against the president's plans for a second phase in a controversial infrastructure project called "Emerging Senegal."

A view shows the Bonny oil terminal in the Niger delta which is operated by Royal Dutch Shell in Port Harcourt Thomson Reuters

LONDON (REUTERS) - Nigeria has ordered foreign oil and gas companies to pay nearly $20 billion in taxes it says are owed to local states, industry and government sources said, in a move that could deter investment in Africa's largest economy.

In a letter sent to the companies earlier this year via a debt-collection arm of the government, Nigerian National Petroleum Corp (NNPC) cited what it called outstanding royalties and taxes for oil and gas production.

Royal Dutch Shell, Chevron, Exxon Mobil, Eni, Total and Equinor were each asked to pay the central government between $2.5 billion and $5 billion, said the sources, who saw or were briefed on the letters.

Norway's Equinor, which produced around 45,000 barrels per day (bpd) of oil in Nigeria in 2017, confirmed the request.

"Several operators have received similar claims in a case between the authoriti…

This illustration released on May 3, 2017 by the Obama Foundation shows plans for the proposed Obama Presidential Center with a museum, rear, in Jackson Park on Chicago's South Side. This view looks from the south with a public plaza that extends into the landscape. Odds still favor the eventual construction of Barack Obama's $500 million presidential museum and library in a park along Chicago's lakeshore. A judge hears arguments Thursday, Feb. 14, 2019, on a city motion to toss a parks-advocacy group’s lawsuit that argues the project violates laws barring development in lakeside parks. (Obama Foundation via AP, File)

BY MICHAEL TARM

CHICAGO (AP) — A federal judge gave the green light Tuesday to a parks-advocacy group’s lawsuit that aims to stop for good the delayed construction of former President Barack Obama’s $500 million presidential center in a Chicago park beside Lake Michigan.

Supporters of the project had hoped the court would grant a city motion to throw out the law…

In this Aug. 9, 2017 file photo, State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert speaks during a briefing at the State Department in Washington. The State Department says Nauert, picked by President Donald Trump to be the next U.S. ambassador to the United Nations but never officially nominated, has withdrawn her name from consideration on Saturday, Feb. 16, 2019. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)BY MATHEW LEE

WASHINGTON (AP) — Heather Nauert, picked by President Donald Trump to be the next U.S. ambassador to the United Nations but never officially nominated, has withdrawn from consideration, the State Department said.

Nauert, a State Department spokeswoman, said in a department statement that “the past two months have been grueling for my family and therefore it is in the best interest of my family that I withdraw my name from consideration.”

Nauert’s impending nomination had been considered a tough sell in the Senate, where she would have faced tough questions about her relative lack of forei…

Honda's President and CEO Takahiro Hachigo speaks during a press conference in Tokyo Tuesday, Feb. 19, 2019. Honda Motor Co. plans to close its car factory in western England in 2021, the company said Tuesday, in a fresh blow to the British economy as it faces its March 29 exit from the European Union. (Yuya Shino/Kyodo News via AP)BY KAORI HITOMI

TOKYO (AP) — Japanese carmaker Honda plans to close its car factory in western England in 2021, a fresh blow to the British economy as it struggles with the uncertainty associated with leaving the European Union next month.

The company announced the decision, which will imperil 3,500 jobs and possibly many more, at a news conference in Tokyo.

Honda’s president and CEO, Takahiro Hachigo, said the decision was not related to Brexit, but was based on what made most sense for its global competitiveness in light of the need to accelerate its production of electric vehicles.

Residents line up to buy propane gas in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Monday, Feb. 18, 2019. Businesses and government offices slowly reopened across Haiti on Monday after more than a week of violent demonstrations over prices that have doubled for food, gas and other basic goods in recent weeks and allegations of government corruption. (AP Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery)BY EVENS SANON, DANICA COTO

PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI (AP) — Businesses and government offices slowly reopened across Haiti on Monday after more than a week of violent demonstrations by hundreds of thousands of protesters demanding the resignation of President Jovenel Moise over skyrocketing prices that have more than doubled for basic goods amid allegations of government corruption.

Public transportation resumed in the capital, Port-au-Prince, where people began lining up to buy food, water and gasoline as crews cleared streets of barricades thrown up during the protests.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Paul Manafort, the one-time chairman of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, could spend more than 19 years in prison on tax and bank fraud charges, prosecutors said Friday.

Court documents filed by special counsel Robert Mueller’s office reveal that Manafort faces possibly the lengthiest prison term in the Russia investigation. The 69-year-old Manafort is also at serious risk of spending the rest of his life in prison if a federal judge imposes a sentence within federal guidelines.

The potential sentence stems from Manafort’s conviction last year on eight felony counts related to an elaborate scheme to conceal from tax authorities the millions of dollars he earned overseas from Ukrainian political consulting. It is one of two criminal cases pending against Manafort in w…